Has anyone ever had a negative assessment by the social and win a case in court?. My 6 month old daughter is with me I'm a fostering placement due to being on a interim care order. Iv had 2 assessment one positive and one done with my daughter's dad that was negative. The positive one was done by a independent social worker. We have made so many changes since his children was removed from his care last November. They are on a open care order to get them back. My daughter's social worker said we had made lots of changes but it is still negative due to missing a medical appointment that the foster took her to as I was on my Solihull parenting course. I'm waiting to see the Guardian but not sure when her report needs to be in and completed for court by end of the month. She's never met our daughter I know we might be in with a chance of she sides with us. We have been messed around since November last year as altogether we've had 8 social workers and the judge has given them a firm warning last time in court. Sorry about the long essey but I don't know what to think

My name is Suzie, the online adviser here at Family Rights Group. I am sorry that you feeling so worried and confused about your current situation and involvement in court proceedings.

In your post you say that your baby is in your care under an interim care order which you describe as fostering. Parents are not usually foster carers for their own child. The fact that your daughter has been placed in your care under an interim care order means this was agreed and approved by a decision maker in the local authority. This gives an opportunity to see how you manage looking after her before the court makes a final decision about whether a full care order should be made in respect of your daughter. It is possible for a child to live with a parent or parents under a full care order. This will depend on the final care plan of the local authority and the court’s decision.

The court would not have given permission for an independent social worker if it was not considered that it would be helpful to have the assessment done. If you have continued to make changes this should be looked at positively by the court.

Please read our advice sheet about care proceedings which will give you an understanding of the procedures and the orders that can be made in care proceedings.

You have not said whether the negative assessment was the first one or second one. If the assessment by the independent social worker was done after the negative assessment, your legal representatives will want the court to consider that one. Was the first assessment done by a social worker from children’s services? Are children's services saying that you have your daughter on your own but not together with your partner?

I am not clear what you mean by an open care order. Are your partner’s children already in foster care under a care order? If they are, is he applying to discharge the care order to have them returned to his care? As you were assessed together, was this to care for his children as well as your daughter in the same home?

If you are able to show that you had an appointment so could not make one medical appointment, I do not think this in itself should mean that you are looked at negatively. Have you discussed this with your solicitor, your solicitor can write to the legal representatives for the local authority to explain why you missed the appointment if this is an issue? What you should do if there is a clash of dates is to inform the social worker in good time so he or she is aware of it rather than just miss an appointment with children’s services or a medical appointment as stated in your post.

Your solicitor can provide you with a copy of the court order which sets out the dates for reports, documents or other evidence has to be sent to the court. The Guardian’s role as a court appointed person is to consider all the information/evidence in the case and make recommendations about what she considers is best for the child. See our A-Z of terms here . The Guardian's view is important and the judge will give a lot of consideration to it, a judge can decide to go against a Guardian's recommendations but would have to give reasons why he or she has decided to do so.

Should you wish to speak to an adviser, please telephone our free and confidential advice line on 0808 801 0366. The line is open from 9.30am to 3pm Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays).

Hi thanks Suzie for your reply my first assessment was positive by the independent social worker and the joint assessment by the social was negative. Yes my boyfriend will be applying for a discharge next month as it will be 6 months since the order was made. The judge left it open for a discharge as the la hadn't worked well with him. There was plenty of evidence showing change but he still wasn't clean from cannabis then but he is now. My daughter's social worker knew I wasn't attending her appointment and said it was ok as her foster carer would be able to take her as I was on my parenting course.

And no unfortunately I don't have anyone who can look after her. The sc said we had made lots of changes but it still negative I'm yet to read the assessment done by the sc as they've not sent a copy to my solicitor. They are twin tracking and I don't feel as if iv been fairly assessed making it negative due to attending my Solihull parenting course especially when the social said it wouldn't be a problem. My daughter is fostered but she is in my care

Thanks for your further post. I am sorry to hear that you feel that you are not being fairly assessed. Children’s Services do have to do twin track planning when they are asking the court to make a decision about who should care for a child permanently. However, as mentioned in our earlier response, positive changes that you have continued to make should be considered by the court when deciding if your child could safely remain in your care.

As the second assessment is the most recent and is the one which is negative it is very important that you do get a copy of it as soon as possible and then meet with your solicitor. You have been told that despite the fact that you have made lots of changes the assessment is still negative. This might be because the social worker thinks that you and your partner cannot safely care for your child together, or that you and/or your partner need to make further improvements or perhaps is worried about whether you and/or your partner are able to keep up the changes. Going through this with your solicitor and deciding how to respond is the first step.

Do raise the issue of the missing appointment/clash of appointments also with your solicitor as advised in the earlier post especially if you believe that this is being unreasonably used to present you in a negative way.

You might find our information on care proceedings and working with your solicitor helpful.

Please post back or call our Freephone helpline on 0808 8010366 Monday to Friday, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm if you need to.

But surly if they have mentioned about the changes shouldn't they least allow us to prove we can do it and sustain it. What if we ask for a supervision order with our solicitors what's the chances the social will agree. Our irh is on the 27th of September and the decision needs to be in by the Guardian by the 1st of September if she agrees with adoption or not. Throughout the whole time since my daughter been born they've constantly kept changing their minds saying we can parent together as the previous social worker done a positive assessment on us and said in court it was positive but funny there's no record of it. So they had to start again. I feel like they're doing it on purpose negative because the last ones have been positive. We've both done the Solihull parenting course and due to start my positive parenting course next month. My placement has been going brilliant with no concerns the independent social worker said my care for her was impeccable. We've accepted their concerns about why the children was removed as before we was told we're minimising

Thanks for your further post. I do understand how difficult the process you are in is for you and your family and your wish to know what is going to happen. Unfortunately we cannot predict whether children’s services or more importantly the court would agree to a supervision order being made.

You seem to be working very hard and engaging really well with support to help your parenting.

Do continue to work closely with your solicitor, the social worker and Guardian and any other professionals involved.

Your solicitor is the best person to assist you in preparing for the issues resolution hearing. Do make sure that you meet and discuss your views with them before they meet with the other legal representatives in advance of the hearing ( which should be no later than 7 days before the issues resolution hearing) so that you can best prepare.

Hi just wanted to inform you that the guardian for my daughter didn't agree with adoption and requested that me and daughters farther do a community based parenting assessment that was happily agreed by the judge. He was very disappointed with the social services lack of evidence and basically begged for them to agree with us to have the assessment the irh was dated to 2 days later as he wanted them to re consider their decision else it would be going to the final hearing and he wasn't going to agree with any care plan and our daughter was to return to us. Well due to being homeless as I'm in a placement I'm still waiting for temporary housing to become available. Do you have any tips on how a community based parenting assessment works. We're having a Independent social worker doing it and it's the same person who gave me a positive assessment back in July. If our assessment is negative I'm going to have to seperate from my boyfriend and parent my daughter alone. We both work very well together in our joint contact even the judge rated contact a++ which is rare. I want to show her the same as we really love each other and our baby girl. Sorry for the long essey I hope it all makes sense

Thank you for your updating post. It is good to see that you have the support of the guardian and the judge to have a community based assessment. This suggests that there is a view that with support you might be able to parent your daughter.

A community based assessment is really one that does not require you to be in a residential unit. It might involve you having to visit a family centre on a daily basis but as there is an independent social worker carrying out the community based assessment. The independent social worker will want to see you with the baby to look at how you manage if you become stressed, that you can manage the baby’s needs in a home situation either with or without support.

You say you are in a placement at the moment and waiting to get temporary housing, you will need to show that you know how to use local services that might be available to you and the baby. What support if any you are likely to have if the baby returned to your care.My suggestion is that you will need to show that you are proactive in meeting the needs of your baby and do not need too much prompting.

You can of course as the independent social worker how the assessment will be carried out and how many times she will expect to meet with you. There is likely to be a letter of instruction to the independent social worker so you should read this and discuss the process with your solicitor. Your solicitor should be able to give you more details bases on your particular circumstances. The same is true of your partner and his solicitor. You will both need to show that you can work together and independently to meet the baby’s needs.

Well done for doing so well that you have the guardian on board for you to be further assessed.

I hope this is helpful but if you wish to speak to an adviser you can telephone our advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30am to 3pm Monday to Friday.